Want to make the most of your classic whisky cocktails? Award-winning Canadian mixologist, industry advocate and Global Cocktailian, Lauren Mote gives her expert advice on how you can use Johnnie Walker Black Label in your bar and reveals some innovative new cocktail recipes to get you started.
Johnnie Walker Black Label - A Flavour Favourite for Your Bar
For over 100 years this icon of Scotch Whisky has been served neat, over ice, with water or as a base for some of the greatest cocktails in the world. Its versatility and greatness has been a constant for over a century.
Behind the Blend
Made using the perfect balance of single malts and grain whiskies from the four corners of Scotland, a small team of 12 experts bring these whiskies together to create the perfect flavour balance that is Johnnie Walker Black Label.
It always amazes me how much these blenders have in common with bartenders - they are to whisky what bartenders are to the drinks industry. We take a design for the finished product and work-back to get to the flavour we want, using all the finest and highest quality ingredients at our fingertips. Similarly, the Johnnie Walker whisky masters have access to the best to develop the best - balancing flavour, texture and consistency.
It’s All About Flavour
As bartenders, we’re always thinking about flavour and Johnnie Walker Black Label provides a dynamic platform for us to get creative. Across fresh and cooked fruits, rich spice and smoke, with a certain honeyed-nuttiness to it – it’s a bartender’s dream. Yet, it’s also a mutually beneficial relationship – with the whisky adding so much to the cocktail’s flavour profile, while the drink’s ingredients amplify the characteristics in the whisky itself.
Johnnie Walker Black Label is a big deal for us bartenders. It doesn’t just showcase sweetness or fruitiness - it showcases each variation of character on the palate, making it a blank canvas for us to work with. Each layer that a bartender applies to Johnnie Walker Black Label seamlessly blends to the next, this is the definition of the modern cocktail.